I’m glad you’re here.

Where are you, exactly? Literally speaking, somewhere in the interstitial space made by a WordPress data center, some screens, a few ambitious radio waves, etc. But what sort of interstitial space? What’s with the “procrastinating poet” and what is this place for?

In short: this is the home for a poet’s writings about everything except poetry. (And maybe some poetry too.)

When I was in college, and should have been doing classwork, I read a quote that lingered for years afterward. It wasn’t from a poem/novel/film/wizened professor. It was (as these sorts of things go) in a quickly-skimmed article in a book of essays about a poet, that I’d grabbed for no particular reason from a library shelf, and returned an hour later; providence has a way of working out.

I was floored by its genius. I wrestled with the quote on and off for weeks and then months. Its ethos described, I thought, exactly the problems I was having as a writer. And when starting this blog (after further years of procrastination), I knew I had to track it down. It would illuminate everything.

An hour or so after dealing with the Byzantine laws of alumni library access, vainly typing in keyword after keyword, I found it:

“Wordsworth once informed an American visitor that although he was known to the world as a poet, ‘he had given twelve hours thought to the conditions of society, for one to poetry.’”

Joel Pace, “Wordsworth and America: reception and reform”

Well: needless to say, it wasn’t the transcendental insight I thought I’d remembered. (And, to clarify, I am not the Wordsworth in this equation) But it’s close enough.

This blog will be, in short, built on the same 12:1 ratio of “non-poetry to poetry” that Wordsworth describes, and which I think is a fair summary of how this poet experiences the world. It will feature things that capture my attention when I “ought” to be writing, and that never make their way into my poetry: space travel; movies; history; nature; video games; dogs; music; small doses of politics & philosophy; things I enjoy and things I loathe; any flavor or variation of”food for thought.”

An audience is a writer’s lifeline. Thank you for being a part of this poet’s audience, in whatever way you choose. If you’re the commenting type, please feel free to comment. If not, I hope this site provides something in the way of “good procrastination” — maybe the kind that leads to new discoveries, interests, or ideas (the stuff, in some sense, of poetry).